A game design blog for people building ambitious PC games
Written by Eduardo Orellana, who makes Flockbay.
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Featured post
A fighter starts as one sentence
A Super Smash Bros. newcomer is chosen long before the punches. The sentence of who they are has to survive contact with the rest of the roster.
Read featured postMost referenced
The essays the other 164 link back to most.
A puzzle is two rules in conflict
Every puzzle starts as rules the game will not bend. The puzzle is the moment those rules contradict the obvious plan.
Tough is not the same as smart
Bungie, on the first Halo, kept the AI identical and raised the damage. Players calling the aliens very intelligent jumped from 8 percent to 43.
A guard must show what he knows
Stealth starts from concealment. It falls apart when the player cannot tell what a guard saw, heard, or is about to do about it.
Build the question, not the game
Final art is the expensive part, which is why it is the wrong place to learn the idea is dull. A prototype answers one question, and it should look ugly.
Juice is how a hit explains itself
Two games can share a move and feel nothing alike. The difference is the instant of feedback that tells your hands the move happened.
Rapture explains itself in the props
Irrational Games, 2007. Strip BioShock of its radios and diaries and the city still tells you what happened. The rooms were built to do that job.
Everything else
Search results
The best game engine for beginners depends on one question
Every list of beginner engines ranks the same names in a different order. The order matters less than one question: do you want to learn to program, or do you want to make a game without learning to? The answer splits the list in two.
2 min readThe best free 2D game engines, and what "free" means for each
"Free" means different things in different engines. Some are free forever, for anything. Some are free until you sell. Some are free with limits you hit at the worst moment. Here are the best free 2D engines, and the catch in each.
2 min readThe best free 3D game engines, and what they cost when you succeed
Most 3D engines are free to start. The difference shows up later, if your game does well: some take nothing, some take a royalty, some ask you to upgrade. That later cost is the one to check before you begin.
2 min readThe best AI tools for making mobile games
A mobile game has to reach Google Play or Apple's store, so the first question about any AI tool is whether it exports there. Several engines now have AI built in and do. The rest of the toolkit, art and sound, works the same as for any game.
2 min readThe best AI tools for game development, by job
No single AI tool makes a game. Different tools do different jobs well: writing code, building a whole game, making assets, making sound. The useful question is which job you need done, and what each tool charges for it.
2 min readFlockbay vs Ziva: an agent inside Godot, or Godot inside an app
Both Flockbay and Ziva put AI to work on Godot projects. Ziva lives inside the Godot editor, for people who use Godot. Flockbay puts Godot inside an app, for people who would rather not open the editor at all.
2 min readFlockbay vs Orca Engine, and what happened to Orca
Orca Engine was an AI game engine built on Godot, with an agent that edited scenes and code. Today its web address leads to Orca, a tool that makes Minecraft mods. If you were comparing it with Flockbay, here is where things stand.
2 min readFlockbay vs Moonlake: interactive worlds, and where Moonlake went
Moonlake AI came out of stealth in 2025 promising interactive worlds from a prompt, and it was widely described as an AI game maker. On 26 September 2026 its homepage described a world model for robots instead. Here is how that compares with Flockbay.
2 min readFlockbay vs Seele: one agent for everything, or a game on your disk
Seele AI aims to do everything in one agent: games, images, video, 3D and code, with browser play and export to Unity. Flockbay does one thing: builds a game you own on Godot, after you agree what to build.
2 min readWhat is Godot MCP?
Godot MCP means connecting an AI agent to the Godot engine through the Model Context Protocol. It turns Godot actions into tools an agent can call, so the agent can run your game, read errors and change scenes on its own.
2 min readMaking games with Kilo Code and Flockbay
Kilo Code is an open-source coding agent for VS Code that supports MCP servers, including local ones. That lets it drive Flockbay, the Godot editor, the running game and the world tools, alongside the code it already writes. Here is the setup, step by step.
2 min readA guide to Godot MCP servers: install, connect, and use one well
A Godot MCP server takes about two minutes to install and changes how an agent works with your game: it can run the project and read the errors itself. Here is the install, the first tasks to try, and the habits that avoid lost work.
3 min readPrompt templates for your own agent in Flockbay
When you connect your own agent to Flockbay, it gets the open Godot editor with undo, the running game to playtest, and six world tools: terrain, water, environment, weather, the player controller and props. These prompts give it the right context and one job at a time. Copy them and change the details.
2 min readThe best AI coding assistant for Godot is the one that knows Godot 4
Most AI coding assistants were trained on years of Godot 3 code, and Godot 4 changed a lot of it. The best assistant for Godot is the one that writes Godot 4 without being reminded. Here is how to test for that in ten minutes.
3 min readThe best AI for GDScript: what good output looks like
You do not need to write GDScript to judge AI-written GDScript. A handful of patterns tell you whether a model knows modern Godot or is guessing from old tutorials. Here are the ones to look for.
2 min readThe best AI for Godot depends on whether you want to write code
"AI for Godot" covers four different things: a coding assistant, a plugin in the editor, an agent connected over MCP, and tools built on Godot that write the game for you. Which is best depends on how much of the code you want to own.
3 min readThe best AI tools for Godot in 2026, with a verdict on every one
Flockbay is free on your own Claude or ChatGPT plan. Claude Pro or Max, or ChatGPT Plus or higher, builds a real Godot project in the Godot editor. Claude Free and ChatGPT Free do not run here. More models are optional, a credit reload at API prices. The best AI tools for Godot, as of 29 September 2026: a coding agent you already pay for, such as Claude Code or Codex, connected to the editor by a Godot MCP server like the free Godot AI; Ziva if you want the agent inside the editor; Summer Engine or Flockbay if you want the whole game built around the AI; and Tripo, Meshy or PixelLab for the art. Below is every tool worth knowing, with its price and a one-line verdict.
10 min readThe best Godot MCP server in 2026 depends on what you want the agent to touch
Flockbay is free on your own Claude or ChatGPT plan. Claude Pro or Max, or ChatGPT Plus or higher, builds a real Godot project in the Godot editor. Claude Free and ChatGPT Free do not run here. More models are optional, a credit reload at API prices. The best Godot MCP server for most people, as of 29 Sep 2026, is godot-ai if you want it free and open in your own editor, and GDAI MCP if you would rather pay $19 once for polish. Coding-Solo's godot-mcp is the simplest start and the most starred. Flockbay is the pick when you want your agent and an AI game maker's world tools on the same game. Here is every server with real use, one verdict each.
8 min readThe best LLM for Godot
Flockbay is free on your own Claude or ChatGPT plan. Claude Pro or Max, or ChatGPT Plus or higher, builds a real Godot project in the Godot editor. Claude Free and ChatGPT Free do not run here. More models are optional, a credit reload at API prices. The best model for Godot is not one name. GDScript, scene editing through MCP, and a long agent loop are different jobs. Last updated 3 October 2026. No vendor page read that day publishes a Godot score.
6 min readClaude for Godot: how to build a Godot game with Claude Code, step by step
Flockbay is free on your own Claude or ChatGPT plan. Claude Pro or Max, or ChatGPT Plus or higher, builds a real Godot project in the Godot editor. Claude Free and ChatGPT Free do not run here. More models are optional, a credit reload at API prices. The quickest way to use Claude with Godot is Claude Code: open a terminal in your project folder, type claude, and ask for a change. It edits your scripts and scenes as files. Give it a Godot MCP server and it can also run the game and read the errors, and with some servers look at the game and press its keys. This guide covers the four real ways to connect Claude to Godot, with the exact steps, what Claude can and cannot do in each, and what each costs, as of 29 Sep 2026.
13 min readCursor plus Godot vs Flockbay: two ways to make a Godot game with AI
Both routes end in a Godot project on your disk. The difference is who is doing the engineering. With Cursor, you are a programmer with a very fast assistant. With Flockbay, you are a designer and the AI is the programmer.
3 min readThe 2026 Cursor Vibe Jam: what the rules asked, what won, and how to prepare for the next
The 2026 Vibe Jam ran through April and closed on 1 May. Its rules were short and strict: most of the code written by AI, playable in a browser with no login and no loading screen. Those two rules decide which tools can enter the next one.
3 min readDoes Godot have AI? Two different answers
"Does Godot have AI" means two different things. Godot has plenty of game AI built in: navigation, pathfinding and animation state machines. What its editor does not ship is a generative AI assistant. For that, you add a plugin or a tool.
2 min readWhat first-time creators asked an AI to build
Two first messages were the same sentence and nothing else: “a small 3d racing game”. A third dropped the “a”. A fourth asked for that racing game and a file to download. The same pile contains one message of 17,667 characters specifying a finished cinematic escape, timer and ending included.
6 min readHow long a first game actually takes
On Windows, 153 installs got an answer from the AI before the first sitting broke. The median wait was 12 minutes and 48 seconds. The faster quarter were answered in 7 minutes 55 seconds. The slower quarter of that group were still waiting at 19 minutes 1 second. 234 of 429 Windows installs never pressed Play.
6 min readWhere people stop
7,229 people reached the site between 5 August and 04:32 UTC on 27 September 2026. 1,031 of them clicked download. That is 14.26 percent. The other 6,198 looked, and left, before a file existed.
6 min readSummer Engine alternatives in 2026: seven real options, and when to stay
Flockbay is free on your own Claude or ChatGPT plan. Claude Pro or Max, or ChatGPT Plus or higher, builds a real Godot project in the Godot editor. Claude Free and ChatGPT Free do not run here. More models are optional, a credit reload at API prices. The best Summer Engine alternative depends on why you are leaving. To stay on Godot, on the official engine, try Flockbay or Ziva, or connect the Claude Code or Codex you already pay for through a Godot MCP server. For a hosted web game, Rosebud; for Unity, Unity AI; for no code at all, GDevelop. Here is each one with a checked price and a one-line verdict, as of 29 September 2026, and the cases where Summer Engine is still the right answer.
8 min readThe best AI game maker, according to Reddit: what people actually say
In April someone on r/aigamedev asked for something like Rosebud, but without the credit meter, and with a clean path to Steam. Every reply either named a different tool or explained why the thing they wanted does not exist. That thread is Reddit on AI game makers in miniature.
5 min readWhat an AI 2D Game Asset Generator Actually Gives You
Generating a picture and producing a game asset are two different jobs. The gap between them is alpha edges, exact sizes, pivots, palette agreement, and whether the thing still reads at the size players see it.
10 min readAI 3D Game Asset Generators and the Topology Problem
A generated 3D model is a shape. A game asset is a shape plus a wireframe, a UV layout, a material, a scale, an origin, a collision hull and, if it moves, a skeleton. Only the first of those comes out of the box.
11 min readWhy generated game dialogue falls apart as a conversation
Generated dialogue reads fine line by line and collapses as a conversation. The missing pieces are state, stakes and memory. Barks are the honest sweet spot.
9 min readAn AI enemy generator gives you a silhouette, not a fight
An enemy is not a model plus a stat block. It is a behaviour the player can read and plan around. Generation gives you the silhouette; the fight is still yours to design.
8 min readCheap to generate a thousand game concepts, expensive to pick one
Concept generators are excellent at novel combinations and useless at judging which combination deserves months of work. The selection test is the whole job.
8 min readQuestions that separate one ai game maker from another
Every tool in this category advertises the same four things. Here are the questions that actually distinguish them, what each shape of tool is genuinely good at, and a test you can run in an afternoon.
10 min readWhat an ai game maker is worth in a 48 hour jam
A hackathon is a scope problem with a clock attached. Generation genuinely buys you hours in some places and quietly spends them in others, and knowing which is which decides whether you submit.
9 min readAI level generators versus classic procedural generation
Procedural generation is a rule system you tune and can trust to stay consistent. A model producing a level is a one-shot draft you must inspect. Both are useful, for different jobs.
9 min readProcedural Generation Only Works When Something Checks It
A generator that can produce an unplayable level will produce one, on someone else, on launch day. The rules that reject bad output are not plumbing. They are the design, written down.
8 min readWhat an AI quest generator actually gives you
A generated quest is an objective, a trigger and a reward hook. A memorable quest is a reason to care, a place it takes you, and a consequence you can see afterwards.
9 min readAI Sound Effect Generators and the Repetition Problem
Text-to-sound gives you one short clip at a time, and short clips are genuinely useful. The thing that determines whether your game sounds good is not the clip. It is what happens the fortieth time it plays.
9 min readWhy AI Sprite Generators Struggle With Animation
One generated sprite can be excellent. Eight generated frames of the same character walking will not be the same character. Animation is a coherence problem, and coherence is exactly what per-image generation does not have.
10 min readHow to judge a game you did not code
Knowing whether a game is any good is a player skill, not a programming one. Here is a method for reviewing your own project and turning the verdict into changes.
8 min readThe smallest plan that is actually useful
Most game plans are either too vague to act on or too long to read. The useful version is four short answers you can write in an afternoon and change on Friday.
9 min readThe honest state of ai game making in 2026
A survey with the hype removed: what ai game making genuinely does well in 2026, what it still cannot do, and what only looks like it changed.
12 min readWhat to build first in an open world
The instinct is to build the map. The right first thing is a hundred metres of ground you enjoy crossing, because everything else in an open world is built on top of the crossing.
10 min readWhen to stop prompting and start building
Asking for a change is so cheap that it is easy to keep asking long past the point where it helps. Here are the signals that the next useful move is to go and place things by hand.
8 min readWhy browser ai game makers hit a ceiling
A tab is the best on-ramp in software and a constrained place to finish a project. What browser tools genuinely do better, where the limit actually comes from, and how to decide which side of it you are on.
10 min readWhy your first AI-generated game is bad, and what to do about it
The first thing you build with AI usually works and is dull. That is not a tooling failure, and a better model will not fix it. It is a description problem, an averaging problem, and a judgement problem, and all three have concrete fixes.
10 min readHer Story is a search box
Sam Barlow, 2015. The whole case is already on the machine. The play is which word you type next, and the game never tells you the right one.
8 min readThe first dungeon was a maze
Nintendo, 1986 and 1987. The Legend of Zelda hands you an underground you are not taught. Zelda II turns the dungeon into a side-on fight. Both habits stuck.
10 min readCuphead bosses teach, then cheat
Studio MDHR, 2017. A Cuphead boss is a pattern you are allowed to learn, and then a second pattern that uses the first one against you.
9 min readThe JRPG starts at a table
Dungeons and Dragons, the mid-1970s, is the template. Dragon Quest, Enix, 1986, is what happened when that tabletop loop was forced through a menu.
9 min readAges and Seasons disagree
Capcom and Nintendo, 2001. The Oracle games shipped the same day. One is about time puzzles. The other is about action. They are not editions.
9 min readThe dotted line ate the trip
Fallout 4, Bethesda, 2015, will walk you from marker to marker. Turn the quest off and what remains is the trip the marker replaced.
8 min readRoguelike vs roguelite: permadeath names two rules
A roguelike keeps nothing when you die; a roguelite lets something survive the run, such as upgrades, unlocks or currency. That one rule decides whether a failed run is wasted time or a payment toward the next, and it changes how the whole difficulty curve has to be tuned.
9 min readAether is several worlds, not one
Retro Studios, 2004. Echoes is not one continuous planet. It is distinct places, each meant to be finished, and a hub that admits the cut.
10 min readCatalyst chopped up its own city
DICE, 2016, fixed a lot about Mirror Edge and still lost the run. Burnout Paradise, Criterion, 2008, kept every event on the same streets. Catalyst did not.
8 min readThe desert arrived after the moves
Ori and the Will of the Wisps, 2020. The Windswept Wastes began as a list of movement problems. The sand was hired later to hold them.
11 min readMario hides a second difficulty
Mario has to work for a first-time child and for someone who has played since 1985. The two difficulties share a level and do not share a route.
13 min readA manual cannot stop a reload
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Bethesda, 1996, asked players not to replay the save. They did. A habit survives any paragraph that scolds it.
8 min readBuilt to Scale was a trap
A 2024 jam gave everyone the phrase Built to Scale. The words stretch in a dozen directions, which is why so many games could be about size and still disagree.
13 min readJusant makes you place each hand
Dont Nod, 2023. Most game climbing is a stick held forward. Jusant is immersive because the grip is a resource you place, not a cutscene you ride.
10 min readBreath of the Wild retired the key
Nintendo, 2017. The Divine Beasts are puzzles you can see whole, and the shrines are the old dungeon chopped into single ideas. The key hunt is what left.
12 min readTeach the system after it matters
Strategy and city builders lose people in the tutorial, before anyone has a reason to learn. Spread the lessons, and make each one a problem.
12 min readSpelunky was two failures glued
Derek Yu, around 2008, did not set out to invent a genre. A platformer and a roguelike each failed alone. Together they produced Spelunky.
9 min readDownwell gives every part two jobs
Ojiro Fumoto's Downwell, 2015, stays deep because almost nothing has a single purpose. The gun is the jump. The gems are the health.
6 min readA badge is not a deduction
Plenty of games hand you a badge and a witness. The ones that are actually detective games make you hold a theory the interface did not write for you.
11 min readDOOM fits inside one arena
Doom, id Software, 2016. One room holds the loop: push in, swap weapons, finish a demon, take what it drops. The campaign is that room again.
7 min readVanquish is a brawler with a gun
PlatinumGames, 2010. Vanquish belongs with Bayonetta, not with cover shooters, because the family trait is depth of action, not melee.
9 min readAccess options are the design
Accessibility is not a checklist added after the fun. It is the work of removing the obstacles between a person and that fun.
12 min readThe save was the design choice
Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly, 2014, nearly saved the ordinary way. Changing that one assumption changed the fear. Design is noticing which assumption.
9 min readDifficulty is a place you choose
Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry, 2025, is not hard because Metroidvanias are hard. The strain sits in the bosses, on purpose. Fairness is the condition.
8 min readThe overworld writes the dungeon
Nintendo, 2013. A Link Between Worlds lets you rent the items and choose a dungeon. The temples have to be fair in any order, which the map decides.
12 min readRayman spends one trick for a world
Rayman Legends, Ubisoft Montpellier, 2013, does not retire a mechanic after one level. 20,000 Lums keeps the sneak until the world is fluent in it.
8 min readDead Space 3 spent the audience
Visceral Games, 2013. The action sequel had sold. The third game pushed further, into co-op and a wider net, and the original promise got thinner.
9 min readOne unfair puzzle convicts a genre
Broken Age, Double Fine, 2014, is charming, and a few puzzles were enough to make players decide the whole genre was broken. Fairness is the repair.
8 min readThe plateau teaches the whole map
Breath of the Wild, Nintendo, 2017, does not solve an open world with a trail of markers. It solves it with a first hour that contains every verb.
6 min readSuper Mario 3D World's level design teaches in four beats
Super Mario 3D World gives each stage one mechanic and a four-step arc: introduce it safely, develop it with real danger, twist it into something new, then end with a final test. Director Koichi Hayashida has linked the pattern to kishōtenketsu, a four-part structure from East Asian storytelling.
7 min readThe stylus redrew the dungeon
Nintendo, 2007 and 2009. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were built for a touchscreen, so the dungeon became something you draw on, not just walk through.
9 min readThe swing is a skill you earn
Insomniac's Spider-Man, 2018, does not hand you the fantasy at the title screen. The web becomes Spider-Man only after the physics start answering you.
8 min readWind Waker temples are too straight
Nintendo, 2002. The Wind Waker gets the sea, the art, and the tone right. Its dungeons are the awkward part: short, guided, and over before they become places.
9 min readLock the game, then polish
Content lock is the day you agree the game will gain no new mechanics. Every hour after that is for the build you already have.
6 min readRandomness has two jobs
A shuffled deck and a missed shot are both random, and they are not doing the same work. One is a generator of situations. The other is a fog on execution.
10 min readMario levels teach by changing one tile
Super Mario Maker, Nintendo, 2015, is a design school. The classic levels work because each one mutates a single idea instead of announcing it.
10 min readEchoes of Wisdom hides in a list
Nintendo, 2024. Zelda copies objects into the world, then buries that power in a menu. The fix is fewer steps between the idea and the copy.
12 min read2015 hid its best ideas in sequels
Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V, Splatoon, Ori and Life is Strange each staked a year on one sharp rule, not on being new.
7 min readLiberty City arrives in slices
Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar North, 2001. Liberty City could not fit in memory. It was streamed in around the player, which is what made the city possible.
10 min readTen years of games, one real lesson
A decade of pulling games apart keeps returning to the same correction: the verb decides the feeling, and the feature list does not.
8 min readThe Swindle charges you for failure
Size Five Games, 2015. A heist is decoration if getting caught reloads a checkpoint. The Swindle makes the loss stick, which is why the job feels real.
5 min readThe companion spoke too soon
God of War, Santa Monica Studio, 2018. A hint that names the solution before you have looked is not accessibility. It is the puzzle being skipped.
6 min readUntil Dawn is not a flowchart
Supermassive Games, 2015. Counting branches is the wrong test. Until Dawn makes you complicit in the next scene, whether or not the plot forks.
8 min readIco cut until the walk remained
Team Ico, 2001. Ico shaped later games by removing the interface, the combat, and the chatter until a held hand was the whole action.
7 min readMusic can be a rule the player hears
Battle music is the dull version of an adaptive score. The useful version tells you where you are, what you risk, and when a system just changed.
8 min readFeedback can stall a finish
A magnet puzzle went quiet for half a year after a pile of notes. The notes were not the work. One finished version, played, would have been.
10 min readCapcom keeps the sensation
Capcom remakes, Resident Evil 2 in 2019 among them, do not copy the feature list. They protect the feeling and let the old buttons go.
9 min readKaizen is a puzzle that answers
Event[0], Ocelot Society, 2016. You type at a shipboard intelligence named Kaizen. The puzzle is what it understands, not how human it sounds.
9 min readShepard was written before you
BioWare's Shepard, 2007, has to be yours and already someone. Push either side too far and the performance, or the choice, goes hollow.
17 min readLocator withholds the answer
Geoguessr scores a pin at once. Locator, a mystery about a missing archaeologist, confirms nothing until three pins are right together.
5 min readEach temple has a character
Nintendo, 2006. Twilight Princess dungeons are remembered as places with a personality and one moment you describe later, not as a checklist of keys.
9 min readCampaigns forgot to argue with the gun
By the mid-2010s many shooter campaigns felt interchangeable. The gun was fine. The levels had stopped asking it to do a new job.
10 min readLives are a second checkpoint
A life counter is not an antique. It is a harsher checkpoint sitting on top of the ordinary one, and it only earns that harshness in a short run.
9 min readOvercooked fails if you stay quiet
Ghost Town Games, 2016. The cooking is easy. The kitchen is built so two players must talk, or the orders pile up on purpose.
9 min readJuice is how a hit explains itself
Two games can share a move and feel nothing alike. The difference is the instant of feedback that tells your hands the move happened.
8 min readNintendo starts with the hands
Nintendo tends to settle how a game is played before it settles what the game is about. Story, technology, and theme come after the verb.
7 min readBlow uncovers a puzzle, then builds it
Jonathan Blow has said Braid, 2008, felt discovered rather than invented. The feeling is not an excuse to skip the room that teaches the rule.
7 min readMosa Lina has no intended answer
Stuffed Wombat built Mosa Lina so a room has tools, not a solution. The designer cannot have meant the route you found, and that is the point.
7 min readBanjo-Kazooie's world design: small and full
Banjo-Kazooie's worlds are small on purpose. Each of its nine worlds is compact enough to hold in your head, built around landmarks you can see from most of it, with 100 notes and 10 Jiggies packed in, so you always know where you are. Banjo-Tooie grew every world and linked them, and paid for it in backtracking.
9 min readHyrule score stays out of the way
Nintendo, 2017. Breath of the Wild is quiet on purpose. A heroic theme would tell you how to feel about a ruin you were meant to interpret yourself.
6 min readODST fired the power fantasy
Bungie, 2009. Halo meant Master Chief, armored and nearly unkillable. ODST removes him. The city is interesting. The absence is the design.
8 min readThe HUD is part of the design
Treat the interface as trim and you waste it. A health number, a marker, a dimmed ability: each one is an instruction about what matters right now.
8 min readA trailer owes one difference
A trailer exists to show the one thing your game does that the others do not. Mood, logos, and a montage are how that job gets avoided.
8 min readThe warning has to be visible
A footstep, a reload, a monster off screen: if the only version of that information is sound, some players are playing a harder game than you designed.
9 min readSnake Pass deleted the jump
Sumo Digital, 2017. Snake Pass is a platformer that refuses the jump, and the whole genre has to be rebuilt around a coil instead.
9 min readAnalysis ends when you build
You can spend years naming the ingredients of a game and still not have one. The next step is a small thing you can play, not another list.
7 min readMiami is a place with two jobs
IO Interactive, 2018. The Miami level in Hitman 2 works because the racetrack and the building were already busy before you arrived with a target.
10 min readPsychonauts is the mind levels
Double Fine, 2005. Psychonauts is not the tidiest platformer of its year. The levels are minds, and the platforming is how you walk through them.
7 min readHitman's Sapienza expects the first run to fail
Hitman is designed around replaying the same level. Your first run through Sapienza usually goes wrong, and that is the point: each attempt teaches a guard's route, a target's schedule or a disguise, and by the fifth run you are planning the hit like an expert instead of improvising it.
8 min readMetroid Dread steers you and calls it freedom
You rarely get lost in Metroid Dread because the game closes doors behind you. One-way passages, collapsing floors and abilities placed a few rooms from the locks they open keep the search area small, so a world that looks like a maze plays like a route.
10 min readA waiting audience hides the launch
A first Steam launch with people already watching is not a typical first launch. The numbers show what that audience forgives, not what a stranger does.
12 min readA choice can skip the menu
A dialogue list is the obvious choice. The stronger ones are actions the story remembers: a door you forced, a person you spared, with no menu in sight.
10 min readOcarina gave the dungeon a height
Nintendo, 1998. Moving Zelda into 3D did not just add a camera. It turned a flat lock-and-key maze into a volume you can get lost in upward.
9 min readA meter is not a moral choice
A good-and-evil bar with two power sets is a costume change. Morality lands when it is a consequence of rules you were already using.
8 min readDeath is still a rewind
Most games still resolve failure the way they did decades ago: fade, reload, play the minute again. The costume changes. The rewind often does not.
8 min readMario jump grew extra results
In Donkey Kong, 1981, the jump is one result. Later Mario jumps steer, stomp, and reach. A verb gets interesting when it stops meaning only one thing.
10 min readRain in Hyrule is the argument
Breath of the Wild, Nintendo, 2017. Rain is not weather. It touches climbing, fire, and stealth. That reach is what systemic means.
10 min readBaba Is You fences one sentence
Hempuli, 2019. The game looks like it will let you rewrite anything. The stages that work are built backward from one sentence you are not meant to find first.
10 min readOne verb carries Shovel Knight
Yacht Club Games, 2014. Mario has a jump, Madeline a dash. Shovel Knight has a downward dig that is attack, bounce, and personality at once.
11 min readWhy Metro Exodus is immersive: menus become objects
Metro Exodus feels immersive because almost nothing lives on a menu screen. The map is paper in Artyom's hands, time and your filter supply are on a watch, weapons are modded on a workbench in your backpack, and a cracked gas mask is a problem you can see. The world keeps running while you use them.
12 min readBuild the question, not the game
Final art is the expensive part, which is why it is the wrong place to learn the idea is dull. A prototype answers one question, and it should look ugly.
11 min readOne rule holds the Roman city
Modern Storyteller, 2021. The Forgotten City kills everyone the moment one person sins. The mystery works because that single rule never bends.
11 min readTwo Metroid 2s, two arguments
Metroid II, 1991, got two remakes that do not agree. AM2R in 2016 and Samus Returns in 2017 each picked a different half of the hunt to protect.
13 min readMelee is not one combat system
Golden Axe and Dark Souls are both close-range fights. They do not share a decision. Combat is the choice you make every second, and the seconds differ.
13 min readThe Sims cannot be fully piloted
Maxis, 2000. A household is too much to steer by hand, so the people have to want things on their own. That want is the design, not a gadget on top.
14 min readBlue Prince drafts against its clues
Dogubomb's Blue Prince, 2025, stacks a clue hunt on a house that redrafts every day. The randomness is the puzzle's enemy unless the notes can outlast a run.
11 min readOne theme, thousands of games
A 2021 jam theme, Joined Together, drew more than 21,000 sign-ups and over 5,800 finished games. The interesting part is what the phrase forced.
14 min readPlaytesters invented GLaDOS
Valve, around 2007. A year into Portal, testers kept saying the tutorial was over and the game had not started. The personality is what answered them.
13 min readOne castle replaced the stages
Konami, 1997. Castlevania had been a parade of stages. Symphony of the Night turns the parade into one castle you learn, and the map is the reward.
12 min readDead Space 2 was given an order
Visceral Games, 2011. The first Dead Space had not sold the way EA hoped. The sequel was steered toward action, and the horror had to survive the steer.
12 min readLink Awakening hid the template
Nintendo, 1993. Link Awakening is remembered for the dream. Under it is the dungeon shape the series kept: a tool, a lesson, a lock that needs the tool.
10 min readCohen owns every room in it
Irrational Games, 2007. Fort Frolic works because one man owns the exits, the radio, and the taste of the place. The level is his performance.
10 min readThe Gloo Cannon is a verb
Arkane, 2017. Prey is full of systems. The Gloo Cannon matters because it talks to all of them: a bridge, a freeze, a ladder, a stop.
10 min readA fighter starts as one sentence
A Super Smash Bros. newcomer is chosen long before the punches. The sentence of who they are has to survive contact with the rest of the roster.
15 min readTough is not the same as smart
Bungie, on the first Halo, kept the AI identical and raised the damage. Players calling the aliens very intelligent jumped from 8 percent to 43.
11 min readA puzzle is two rules in conflict
Every puzzle starts as rules the game will not bend. The puzzle is the moment those rules contradict the obvious plan.
16 min readA guard must show what he knows
Stealth starts from concealment. It falls apart when the player cannot tell what a guard saw, heard, or is about to do about it.
9 min readThe camera serves two masters
A game camera owes the gameplay a readable space and owes the picture a composition. Those debts are often collected at the same moment.
10 min readPlayers will take the dull win
Give people a slow, safe, repeatable way to win and many of them will take it. Protecting them means closing that path, not scolding them.
12 min readDoom can be brilliant and still lose you
Doom, id Software, 2016, has some of the best fights in the genre, and a player can still drift off before the end. Attention is a design problem.
19 min readApe Out kept the accident
Gabe Cuzzillo set out to make a stealth game. The grab was fun, the stealth was not, and Ape Out, 2019, is the grab with a gorilla attached.
8 min readRapture explains itself in the props
Irrational Games, 2007. Strip BioShock of its radios and diaries and the city still tells you what happened. The rooms were built to do that job.
15 min readThe jump is the whole contract
Celeste, Maddy Makes Games, 2018. Nothing else in the mountain matters until the jump is short, steerable, and willing to assume you meant the ledge.
15 min readMake the player show the work
A good detective story is the work: interviews, a scene, a theory. A game that only lets you pick a name from a list has done the work already.
11 min readMystery is a distance you set
Breath of the Wild, Nintendo, 2017. A dragon crosses the sky and is not explained. Mystery is how long you can stand to withhold the answer.
17 min readA win that feeds the next win
A feedback loop turns the result of the last action into the odds on the next one. The design question is when success should compound, and when it should stop.
15 min readHealth systems in games tell you where to stand
A game's health system decides where players stand. Regenerating health lets them take a hit and hide, health packs make them manage a resource and explore for it, and hybrids such as Halo's recharging shield over a health bar sit in between. Pick the rule for the behaviour you want, not out of habit.
10 min readHollow Knight trusts you to be lost
Team Cherry, 2017. After a thin decade for the genre, Hallownest is a map you are allowed to misread. The benches and the stag are kindness, not a guided tour.
17 min readA speech check skips the scene
Charisma as a dice roll deletes the conversation. Talking becomes play when a read, a fact, or a favour is something you can spend.
10 min readThe pad decides which games exist
A controller is not a neutral pipe. The buttons you can reach decide which games are cheap to build, quick to explain, and comfortable to play.
10 min readA decorative clock is not a system
Most day-night cycles wait for the player. A time loop only works when the schedule runs without you and you can learn it.
13 min readOne reload broke Gears of War
Epic, 2006. Active reload was a small timing trick that warped the whole gunfight. Most design problems are that size, and they are solved one at a time.
13 min readCeleste's Assist Mode is a tone of voice
Celeste's Assist Mode lets you lower the game speed to as little as 50%, turn on infinite stamina, extra or infinite air dashes and invincibility, and skip chapters. What sets it apart is how it is offered: the game says plainly that it is meant to be hard and that taking help is fine, then gets out of the way.
16 min readThe spark is the easy half
Every game starts as an idea. The hard part is whether that idea is a verb you can play tomorrow, not a premise you can describe.
16 min readSequence breaking in Toki Tori 2: the lock is knowledge
Toki Tori 2 has no keys, no new abilities and no upgrades. You get two actions, whistle and stomp, and the next area opens once you understand a creature you have already met. Because the lock is knowledge, sequence breaking is not a bug here; it is a legitimate way to play.
10 min readSkyward Sword leads you through
Nintendo, 2011. Early Zelda dungeons were mazes. Skyward Sword dungeons are routes, with a warden and a door that opens when the route is understood.
13 min readA prize can spoil the play
A 1970s drawing study paid some children in advance. They drew less afterward. A reward can move attention off the thing you wanted them to enjoy.
10 min readNova-111 kept a bug on purpose
Nova-111 was a turn-based crawler until a bug let enemies move between turns. The hybrid is only good when that accident stays the point.
7 min read